Here’s a picture of me from 1975. I’m at the video board at WGHP TV in High Point, North Carolina. Weekends and summers in high school and college, I worked at the local TV station, running the projector and editing films. I got to see a lot of classic movies, especially the horror and science fiction films we featured on Shock Theater, which aired Saturday at midnight.
That first job makes a lasting impact, often in ways we don’t recognize. Like many truths about ourselves, it often takes an outsider to point that out. For example. I was pleasantly surprised by this review of Aztec Midnight, my first book:
“Tuggle skillfully ends most of his sections with hooks redolent of the weekly movie suspense serials that provided filler between Saturday matinee double features.” — Gordon Osmond, author of Slipping on Stardust
As soon as I read it I realized Osmond was right. I’d absorbed many of the tropes from the science fiction movies I’d edited, and as a kid, loved watching “B” serial films like Rocket Man.
Recreating the fun and adventure of those old classics remains my goal in the stories I write today. And if they get published? Why, that’s just icing on the cake.
Great blog, Mike. Always enjoy your posts. Write on!!
Thank you, David!
Thanks a lot. I will have a look now.
What a fantastic story and picture, that job must have been a lot of fun! I just looked up your book on Amazon in England and it’s not available. Do you have a place to buy it digitally?
Thanks for that! Sadly, it’s out of print. But my latest work has the same vibe: https://www.amazon.com/Minstrels-Galaxy-Stories-Key-Tull-ebook/dp/B0D79FMH8S/?tag=amzwatcher-20
Great post!
Glad you enjoyed it!
My early jobs
Ah, a fellow radio/television star! Write on, my friend. Write on!
how cool 😎
It was a fun job.
We had a lot of fun in those days … now, we create fun 🤩
That is a cool first job!
Yes, it was a blast. I learned a lot, got to meet a lot of interesting people on both sides of the cameras.
Awesome!